Dave and I will celebrate our 12th anniversary next week; and while a lot has changed in our lives over the past 12 years, our love for at-home dates has stayed the same!
True Story: After our wedding reception, we went to our new house and ate grilled cheese as our first meal at home together… just hours after we were married!
To celebrate our anniversary (and our love of at-home dates), I’m offering some fun freebies from Blue Apron at the end of today’s post!
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I do realize we’re probably not “normal” in our preference to stay home versus go out, but it just works so well for us!
We have lots of friends and relatives who regularly go out together (sometimes several times a week). They hire a babysitter or ship the kids off to grandparents’ houses. They have creative plans for what they will do. They go out, enjoy themselves, and return home happy and refreshed.
It seems like such a fun concept…until Dave and I actually try to implement it in our own lives. Then we realize just how much work a simple date night can be for us.
Find someone to watch the kids, decide on what to do or where to go, make food for the kids, wait in traffic or long lines, wait for drinks, wait for food, wait for the event to start, come home early because we didn’t enjoy the movie or the show, realize that Clara didn’t stay sleeping so she’s been awake all night and is now super tired, get to bed way too late, feel tired and behind the entire next day because we were out late and didn’t complete any of our normal evening activities.
I know that might seem awfully pessimistic, but it’s honestly how I feel about “going out”.
It’s frustrating, expensive, and not nearly as glamorous as movies or books make them sound (at least not in my opinion).
Eating out on our honeymoon… one of the only date pictures we have!
On the contrary, hanging out at home in comfy clothing (after the kids are in bed), eating good food we didn’t have to wait for or constantly assure the waitress we’re enjoying, and simply throwing our plates in the dishwasher before getting back to our Netflix movie is SO MUCH MORE relaxing!
And since I enjoy cooking (most of the time), I’d much rather make food at home than pay 4 times as much at a crowded, noisy restaurant that doesn’t let me eat in my PJ’s!
As many of you know, Dave and I have enjoyed occasional Blue Apron meal deliveries for well over 4 years now (our most recent shipment arrived on my birthday this past weekend!)
It’s SUCH a fun treat for us to make special meals using ingredients we might not normally cook with… right from the comfort of our own home!
Honestly, we’ve never had a bad meal yet — they are SO yummy!
The pre-portioned ingredients mean almost no prep for me, and no wasted food later on.
The simple-to-follow picture directions mean little room for error.
The clearly-labeled ingredients and included nutrition facts mean we know exactly what we’re eating.
The delivery to our front door means one less thing for us to do!
Win, win, win, win!
Have you wanted to try Blue Apron… but still haven’t signed up?
If you want a fun at-home date night… Blue Apron is so much less expensive than paying a babysitter and going out!
If you’d like to step out of your cooking comfort zone and try new ingredients and new cooking techniques… Blue Apron can help.
If you’d like a mini-break from planning every single meal of every single day… Blue Apron will give you that break.
Blue Apron will also give you a discount! They are currently offering $50 off 2 weeks worth of meals to anyone who places their first order via this link!
What are you waiting for? Give it a try and enjoy a few at-home dates!
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Blue Apron. All opinions are my own.
Jeanine says
Andrea, I’ve followed your blog for many years, and I always recommend it to those who are getting married or having a baby because you have the best advice! Staying home for dates is another great idea because you can put your children to bed early and then have time to yourself, all without worrying about babysitting, etc. I say enjoy it while you can, and I know you already know this, but keep them on a regular schedule of going to bed early, and you can enjoy many wonderful date nights! Of course, you have early mornings I’m sure, but it’s worth it!
Andrea says
Thanks so much Jeanine! Yes, our kids are in bed early and then wake up early — but Dave and I are morning people so we just wake up even earlier and all is well. We LOVE our quiet evenings after the kids are sleeping!
Leslie says
So, I’m curious. We’ve done Blue Apron before and LOVED it. We are empty nesters and I love to cook but felt like I had gotten into a rut cooking the same old things all the time. I used Blue Apron to learn new foods we would not normally eat. We eventually stopped our subscription but I have been thinking about starting up again and I am interested in your delivery schedule. It sounds like you only order a few times a year – is that right? I did not realize that option was available. I know you can cancel deliveries on vacation weeks or other times you can’t use the box – I am very interested in a less-frequent schedule. Maybe I need to contact their customer service. I really enjoy your blog and your passion for your family and mothering.
Andrea says
yes, we just order 5-7 times per year — just skip all the weeks you don’t want to get food. You can only skip 4-5 weeks at a time, so you need to remember to log into your account every month and skip the next few weeks if you don’t want them.
And yes, if you have more questions, definitely contact their customers service… they are very helpful!
Heidi says
Just to let you know, your affiliate link for Blue Apron doesn’t show up in Safari, but it does show up in Chrome. I don’t know if that is because I haven’t updated my Safari in a while, but I thought your web developer should know just in case. I’d hate for you to miss people 😀 Thanks for the post!
Andrea says
Thanks for thinking of me Heidi! My link is not an affiliate link (I would have to disclose that) it’s just a tracking link so the company can see how many people are coming directly from my post. Still not sure why it wouldn’t work in Safari — but no worries about me “getting credit” for anything!!
Linda B says
We have been enjoying Home Chef at home meals for over a year. It has cut down on the number of meals we eat out and my HUSBAND enjoys cooking them because everything is pre-measured and the directions are so good. After 30 years of doing all the cooking, I am beyond thrilled that he is enjoying making th boxed meals. I’m all for turning dinner three nights a week over to him!
One thing that struck me about your honeymoon date night picture is that even in your non-pregnant, non-breastfeeding days, your tank top still looks like the Glamourmom tops you recently wrote you have been living in for the past six years. It really is a cute style on you.
And, along with everyone else, thank you for fixing your site so it loads again. I haven’t been able to get in for almost two weeks and I have a lot of reading to catch up on. But it’s pouring here and reading is a perfect rainy day activity.
Andrea says
yay — SO happy we FINALLY found the fix! It only took us 3 weeks and hundreds of emails to figure out the issue 🙂
Debra Martin says
Yes to Blue Apron for date nights, we are having it tonight! Yes, yes, to your site downloading normally again…it was downloading at a ‘snail crawl’, no matter what I tried to do!
Andrea says
oh cool — enjoy your date night! and yay for my site running better. We FINALLY figured out the issues last night 🙂
Deb says
YAY! Your website is loading so much faster! Thanks.
I totally agree and we are empty nesters. I hate crowds and over half the time when we go out to eat, I am disappointed. For what we pay to eat at Five Guys, we could eat steak or shrimp at home. And movies, there are free Redbox codes at least a couple of times a month and the last time we went to a movie, it was $23 for 2. No thanks.
I might also tend to be a germophobe and a lot of things I see when I eat out kind of gross me out.
The only exception really is Chick Fil A, we do eat there, but we almost always have something free with the A list app or the calendar and they are clean and nice!
Andrea says
oh good, I’m so glad the website is loading faster! and yes, I’m sort of a germaphobe when it comes to other people making food for me too 🙂 I’m not proud to admit it, but I really just want my own food to be from my own kitchen!
I might have to look into Chick Fil A — I’ve never been there before, but they have a new one not super far from us. It’s one of the things on our summer fun list!
Deb says
They sell a calendar every year in January and it pays for itself in coupons several times over.
This would be a GREAT way to make a memory https://www.chick-fil-a.com/Cow-Appreciation-Day
If you put the app. on your phone and then add money to it, you earn free stuff, similar to Starbucks. And, they will randomly give you free stuff, “just because,” even says that in the email! The calendar also connects to the app, so you just scan it if you don’t want to use the “card” that comes with the calendar.
You might like it more than Culvers. 😉
Andrea says
yay — so fun! I’ve already added the Cow Appreciation Day to my calendar and we are totally going to go!!
Not sure if we’ll like it more than Culver’s, but it could be a winning restaurant for us, that’s for sure! 🙂
Amy says
Yayyyy!!! Your website is working for me again. I’ve missed it here…but now I have lots of posts to read while I’m breastfeeding today!
Andrea says
oh good — I’m so happy! Make sure you enter to win the Glamourmom nursing top giveaway too 🙂